


that one coffee shop song (but without the coffee)

by Mikkal



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Asexual Character, Asexual!Barry, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, OT3, OT6, Protectiveness, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-06-09 07:31:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6895657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikkal/pseuds/Mikkal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>In which Barry, Iris, Cisco, Eddie, Caitlin, and Ronnie have no-boundaries, are overly touchy, and could be mistaken for poly (and who’s to say they aren’t, huh?). Oh, and they live in Eddie’s apartment until Eobard’s house is less creepy. </p>
  <p>	(Where is started out as a Slice of Life drabble, but ended up as a season 2 re-write to the 100 Themes Challenge tune (while still being more of slice of life!). Definitely not in chronological order.)</p>
</blockquote><p>The main pairings are Westhallen and Killervibestorm, but the six of them will intermix! Tags will be updated as the stories are written. (AU Season 4 for Arrow)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1. Introduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caitlin/Iris  
> Eddie/Barry  
> Eddie/Iris  
> Eddie/Iris/Caitlin  
> (all)

Iris sheds her jacket as she walks into Eddie’s apartment, water dripping from the well-made fabric. She tosses onto the the umbrella stand near the door in the foyer (why he has an umbrella stand she will never know, the guy doesn’t even own any umbrellas, he just suffers) and shakes out her hair from where it bunched under her hood. The television is loud enough she can hear the sounds of stock phrases and explosions (and Cisco swearing about someone cheating) without ever having to see the screen.

            She bypasses the living room to head to the kitchen where Caitlin is eating cucumber slices. Iris grabs a glass and fills it with tea, sipping it as she leans against the counter next to her, brushing their shoulders. They survey the living room in comfortable silence. Eddie and Cisco are on the floor, dressed down, arguing about whether or not someone could actually cheat at whatever game they’re playing, controllers in both hands.

            From this angle she can finally see Barry sprawled on the couch on his stomach. For a moment she thinks he’s asleep, but then she notices the slit of his eyes peering at the screen, a hand under his cheek, his hair ruffled. He looks like a sleepy cheetah, long limbed and danger hidden under the softness.

            “Recap?” Iris asks quietly.

            “Apartment fire,” she answers just as quiet. “He’s been back for about twenty minutes. He didn’t eat breakfast, barely had lunch, so Ronnie’s getting food.”

            There’s a spot of soot at Barry’s hairline that he missed when he washed off. Eddie drops his controller, throwing his hands in the air, loudly proclaiming ‘winner!’ Cisco grumbles a ‘I let you win.’ (Which none of them doubt, this is _Cisco_ were talking about, he could beat any of their asses at video games, but sometimes he’s too nice) and changes the game to _Portal_ , leaving Eddie to climb to his feet.

            “How’s construction on Eobard’s house?” she asks as Eddie bends down to Barry’s level to talk softly with him, hand between his shoulder blades. Caitlin winces. “That bad, huh?”

            Caitlin glances down, fiddling with her wedding ring. “We got as much future tech out of there as we could. We risked it with the little, not obvious things, and Ollie and Bruce’s construction companies are making good headway. But,” she sighs. “That place has as many twists and turns as STAR Labs, it’s slow going. It won’t be livable for about four more months.”

            Eddie presses a kiss to Barry’s temple before standing again, stretching out his back with a groan. Cisco pauses his game and climbs onto the couch, sitting on the back of Barry’s thighs and starting the game back up. His goal is to finish the game as fast as possible with as little mistakes. It makes Iris’ head spin. She prefers _Halo_ to be honest, or even _Kingdom Hearts_. She’s a little terrified to touch _Portal_.

            Weight presses down on her back and she braces herself against the counter, totally prepared for when Eddie’s face appears between her and Caitlin, his breath hot on her ear.

            “How was work?”

            She grins, ignoring the way his fingers drag up and down on her bare arm. “Involving lots of words. How was your day?”

            “Involving lots of guns,” he replies with a laugh. He reaches over and plucks one of the cucumbers from Caitlin’s Tupperware, crunching down on it. It’s too loud in her ear. “Only one emergency today, though, the fire, and no metas, so I count it as a good day. You?”

            “Finished two articles, edited another for Linda.”

            Eddie reaches for another cucumber, but Caitlin taps his hand away. He pouts at her. Iris laughs softly, leaning her head against his cheek as Caitlin gives him the cucumber he’d been reaching for after a few more seconds of pause.

            “You’re the best, Cait,” he tells her, kissing her cheek. Her ears turn pink and she turns laser-eyed focus to unsticking two slices from each other. “Isn’t she the best, Iris?”

            Iris brushes her fingers against her pale wrist, tracing Caitlin’s watch with a bronze colored nail. “The bestest.” She ignores Eddie’s crunching again to ask, “When’s Ronnie suppose to get back? At this rate you and Eddie are going to eat all the cucumbers and Barry there is going to fall asleep.”

            Barry, with his eyes closed finally, waves a lazy hand at the sound of his name. “’m ‘wake,” he slurs.

            “No one believes that,” Eddie informs him. He leans further over Iris’ shoulder to give her a cucumber-tinted kiss on the lips, the dark of her lipstick smearing against his. “I’ll go see what’s taking Ronnie so long, yeah? Be back soon.”

            He swipes another cucumber despite Caitlin’s protests and gives Iris another kiss before tromping out the door, pulling on his jacket. Caitlin sighs, fond, and leans most of her weight against Iris, tilting her head on her shoulder.

            “He could just call him,” Iris says.

            She feels more than sees Caitlin’s head shake, she glances over to see her pointing at Ronnie’s phone sitting on the counter

            “Ah.”

            They stand there in comfortable silence, the only noise is Cisco’s occasional soft swearing and the sarcastic tones of _GLaDOS_ mocking Chell. He’s got his hair pulled up in the low bun she likes so much and he wearing that over-sized washed out gray _Every Girl Loves a Superhero_ shirt Ronnie bought him as a joke a little bit ago. The most important part of it is _Girl_ is crossed out and in Barry’s familiar writing _Person(!)_ is written just above it instead.

            She does a double take when she realizes Barry had shifted so his chin is propped up on the back of his hand and he’s staring at her and Caitlin with half-lidded eyes. There’s something in that gaze that makes something uncomfortable coil in her chest. She can’t tell if it’s dread, or despair, or any other negative emotion.

            Keys sound in the lock, dashing away that look in his eyes. Eddie pushes open the door, shaking his head like a dog to get the water out.

            “Look who I ran into!”

            Ronnie comes barreling in, a stack of _Red Tomato Pies_ pizza held above is head and a wide smile on his face. Martin and Clarissa follow him, arm in arm, Martin still shaking out his umbrella.

            “Hello, everyone,” Martin says first. “I heard you were having pizza.”


	2. 2. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caitlin/Cisco/Barry

He smells it before he sees it, sees it before he knows who’s given him the nectar of the gods. Cisco doesn’t bother trying to learn who exactly until he’s inhaled about half the gorgeous 20 oz. Flash Latte (Trademarked by Jitters) that had been set in front of him.

 When he can feel his tongue again and the wheel starts turning once more, he tilts his head back to spot Barry lounging on the couch, one leg over the back of it, the other stretched out over the arm. He’s got a scrape on his cheekbone that already looks a day old and shadows under his eyes that almost matches Cisco’s, if not a shade or two darker, so that’s mostly okay to ignore.

 I love you,” he tells him. “You’re my favorite.”

 Barry huffs a laugh, throwing an arm over his face. “That’s a lie. We all know Ronnie’s your favorite.”

 “And _that’s_ a lie,” Caitlin announces, holding her own Jitters cup with _‘Caitlin_ ’ scribbled on it in Barry’s familiar tiny, looping words. “Because I’m obviously his favorite.”

 “Changed my mind. Can’t you all be my favorites?” He clutches his latte closer to his chest as Caitlin pokes and prods Barry’s arm until he moves it out the way to she can inspect the scrape. “Because, yeah, y’all my favorites.”

 Caitlin blows him a kiss before going back to Barry. “Ribs?”

“Sore.”

“Broken?”

 “No, Doctor Snow.”

 “Legs?”

“Good.”

“Back?”

 “Good.”

 “Nose?”

Sigh. “Good. It was one time, Cait! _One time_.”

“Two,” Cisco corrects, turning back to the papers he spread out over the coffee table. “Multiplex and Pied Piper.”

Barry groans. “Hairline fractures in a nose don’t count, Paco.” Cisco smiles at him, feeling warm in his chest. “Especially when caused by sound waves.”

 “Three. Eobard did it before the Singularity,” Caitlin adds.

 Barry’s expression darkens, but Cisco refuses to let him pull away. With a hasty “See, Caitlin says three, that mean’s Hartley does count” he manages to turn the dark expression into a twist of disgust.

 “He didn’t even punch me!” he complains, tossing his head back dramatically to come eye-to-eye with Caitlin. He jumps, flailing a bit. “Jesus, when’d you get so close?”

 “Have you been _lying_ to me, Barry Allen?” she demands, eyes narrowing. “An entire year of heroics and you’re telling me that the three broken noses I’ve seen and/or set are it? No, I don’t think so.” She grabs his face between her open hands. Barry’s eyes widen and he squeaks (kind of adorably to be honest). “ _How many?_ ”

 “Um…eight?”

 She squeezes his face just a little, smushing his cheeks out. “And you set. them. _your. self?”_ she hisses dangerously.

Tiny voice. “…yes?”

 He lets out another squeak as Caitlin squeezes a little harder before relaxing. She presses her lips to his forehead, lingering for a long moment. She closes her eyes tightly, eyebrows pinched in the middle.

 “I worry about you, Bar’,” she says softly.

 His eyes flutter close. “I know,” he murmurs. “I’m sorry.”

 Cisco reaches out, the tips of his fingers brushing Barry’s bare arm. The resulting static, his powers clashing with Barry’s, causes the hair on his arm to stand on end. It’s a subtle reaction, thank God, because it’s one thing telling Barry he knows about his own death, it’s another to tell them all he sees more than just that.

 This time he doesn’t see anything, just gets a vague spark of guilt and despair that hovers around Barry like a cloak these last two months.

 He wraps his hand around Barry’s wrist, pressing his thumb against his pulse point. Barry gives him a wobbly smile before sitting up, swinging his feet over the edge.

 “Whatcha working on?” he asks. Caitlin climbs over the arm of the couch to curl up against Barry, sipping her drink.

 Cisco turns back to the coffee table, double tapping the surface to bring up the hologram. The pros of having left over future tech and a futuristic AI living in STAR Labs.

 Just going over some STAR Labs patents in our files,” he says. “See what we could reasonably sell to get back back on our feet.”

 Both Caitlin and Barry slide down on either side of him, snug against him. Barry swings his arm over his shoulders, leaning forward to peer intently at the hologram.

 “What’s up first?”


	3. 5. Seeking Solace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cisco comes home and learns Barry's had a bad day, but he won't explain what's going on.  
> Cuddling ensues: him, Barry, Ronnie, and Eddie.

            Cisco comes home to a quiet apartment, which is both worrying and not. The loudest person just arrived (him, he can’t help it sometimes, he _likes_ being loud, okay?), Caitlin and Iris are both at work (their discussions about everything and anything get loud _on purpose_ ), but Ronnie, Eddie, and Barry are suppose to be home, and they had a tendency to create a lot of noise when you combine the three of them together.

            Yet the apartment is dead silent. Eddie’s car is parked in his designated spot, somehow Ronnie’s bike is sideways in Iris’ spot, so they’re at least here.

            He drops his keys in the little pot Barry picked up in Zapopan, Jalisco during one of his runs and carries the bag from Bobby’s over to the kitchen, shoving the salmon and corn in the fridge and the rice in the pantry. It’s Eddie’s turn to cook tonight and his glorious Salmon Chowder is on the docket. ( _yess_ )

            Cisco pulls his hair back in a bun and shucks off his jacket, dipping into the junk drawer for the Taser Joe commissioned for Iris. (she prefers to carry around pepper spray and keep Barry on the emergency speed dial). He’s still waiting for the paperwork to go through for his own weapons permit.

            He creeps his way through the apartment, Taser half hidden incase someone comes out and he has to pretend he’s not about to hit them with volts of electricity. No one is in the spare bedroom, the door wide open, but the main bedroom—the one Iris, Eddie, and Barry claimed because, well, it _is_ Eddie’s apartment—is half-opened. He peers inside to find Ronnie and Eddie curled up with each other in the bed.

            Ronnie’s flat on his back, diagonal across the bed. Eddie’s got domain of the pillows, his back flush against Ronnie’s side, his leg hooked through Ronnie’s, and a pillow cuddled to his chest. One of Ronnie’s arm is being used as a pillow by Eddie, the other is thrown out, curled, with the sheet ruffled in the space, like someone had been lying there.

            It’s absolutely adorable and Cisco feels no shame in taking out his phone and taking a few pictures, sending one immediately to Iris and Caitlin in a group message. (they have a secret-not-secret Instagram account full of cute and weird group/individual pictures of them all when they’re ‘off-the-clock,’ this one definitely qualifies)

            He hears the toilet flush and Barry shuffles in and Cisco instantly knows something’s wrong. For one thing, Barry never lets his hair look like the mess that it is unless he just took off his mask or he just woke up. Two, his so-oversized-why-does-he-even-have-it College of Science and Mathematics sweat shirt only pops up when he’s feeling particularly vulnerable. Three…the look on his face, it’s…there aren’t really any words for it.

            “Barry?”

            There’s a thrum in the air when his eyes snap from Ronnie and Eddie to him. A music chord too high, too painful, a screech of the bow against the string of a violin.

            And suddenly he finds himself being hugged, wrapped up tight in Barry’s arms like he’s scared Cisco’s going to disappear right then and there. His hands come up automatically, wrapping around his waist in response.

            “Hi?” Cisco says, confused by the silence and the suddenness.

            Barry just buries his face in the juncture of his neck as an answer, his back bowing out a little to get at Cisco’s height. His fingers curl against Cisco’s back, bunching up his shirt, and he shudders out a warm breath that sounds too much like a sob for comfort.

            Cisco keeps his arms around him, but shuffles them to the side so he can put the Taser on the dresser, then he tightens his hold on his friend. “Barry,” he says quietly. “Please talk to me, you’re freaking me out.”

            Barry breathes in sharply. “Bad day,” he finally admits. “Really bad day. Please—I…”

            He splays his hands out, pressing his palms against the knobs of Barry’s spine that he can feel even through the sweatshirt. Barry crowds closer, slotting their bodies together, trying to draw some sort of comfort (…assurance?) from him.

            That’s when his world goes blue and static-y.

            Like his death.

            _And it_ is _his death_.

            All the oxygen leaves his lungs in one fell swoop, he feels like he’s been punched in the gut and slapped in the face all at the same time.

            It jumps around like a badly edited PowerPoint from middle school. One minute Eobard is standing there, the next his hand’s in his chest, and another Caitlin is finding him, screaming, shrieking, crying as she drops to her knees, her phone shattering on the ground.

            The next slide is Eddie, fritz-ing at the corners, white shirt red. Dead. Dead and Red. Iris bowed over him, sobbing, Barry flush against the walls of the Pipeline, wide-eyed, crying, a ring of purple around his neck. The Time Breach collapses into black then expands into _light_.

            And then Ronnie, a bright spot in collapsing darkness. Surrounded by fire and _screaming_ , torn apart at the seams of him and Martin Stein.

            He shudders in Barry arms, mind going _miles_ a minute. _What_ was _that_? He…that was his death. But what was the rest of it? Why did he—why did he see Ronnie and Eddie, they were, they were right there, on the bed—Eddie, shifting, too blue eyes blinking open, bleary.

            Their gazes meet and suddenly Eddie is wide awake, mouth twisting into a concerned frown.

            Barry stiffens and pulls away, holding Cisco’s shoulders in a too tight grip. Cisco’s hands come up on their own, wrapping around his wrists. There’s lightning in his eyes, his eyebrows furrowed. Grief and worry mix in his expression and there’s an undercurrent of _anger_ there. Cisco blinks and it’s gone in a _flash_ , leaving the other two emotions behind.

            “What happened?”

            The visions fade like they were never there, only the lingering traces of horror and grief. But he’s _here_ , and Ronnie is alive, Eddie is propped up on his elbow, watching them. He…alternate timelines are a thing, he knows this. His death is in one of them. Does that mean that? Are those two timelines, or one? Did Ronnie and Eddie die one after another, falling like dominoes?

            But they’re _alive_.

            (does _Barry_ remember? Is that what he’s getting right now? Was he triggered by the emotions _rolling_ off of him?)

            Cisco shakes his head, coming back to reality. “Nothing,” he finally answers. He trails a hand up Barry’s arm, splaying his hand on his shoulder blade, and turning him towards the bed. “Come on. I’m tired.”

            Not really, but the grateful look Eddie sends him way loosens something in his chest.

            Barry follows him like a kicked puppy, waits for Cisco to kick off his shoes and shimmy out of his jeans then climb into bed. He’s not sure how to be arranged. If there were three of them, he’d put Barry in the middle because obviously contact is what he needs. But there’s four, someone’s going to be left out.

            “Here.” Eddie shifts up, yanking on Barry to arrange him between Ronnie and Cisco.

            Ronnie jerks awake with a huff, hair everywhere. “What’s going on?”

            “Shush,” Eddie says, the corner of his lips twisting up in a fond smile. “Go back to sleep.”

            He shakes his head, glaring at him with no heat for the order, before he curls on his side and hugs Barry’s arm to his chest. Barry laughs softly and turns towards him. Cisco throws an arm over Barry’s waist, hugging close, and trying to figure out how Eddie’s going to fit into all of this.

            Eddie, that bastard, takes a picture of them, hand on his hip, lip pulled between his teeth. He’s not even bothering to fight the smile breaking out.

            Cisco’s questioning is finally answered when Eddie climbs into the empty spot above Barry’s head, stretching out along the headboard, easing his arm under Barry’s head. He plays with the speedster’s hair with his free hand, soothing whatever hurts he has.

            A soft noise rumbles from Barry’s chest, rolling, vibrating.

            Cisco stifles a laugh.

            He’s _purring_.


End file.
